What is the Joss Naylor Challenge?

It's a fell running route covering seventy-two Lake District peaks (all major summits over 2,500 feet) in under twenty-four hours. Joss Naylor completed it in 1986 at age fifty, finishing in twenty-three hours and eleven minutes.

How is the Bob Graham Round different from what Joss Naylor did?

The Bob Graham Round covers forty-two peaks in twenty-four hours. Naylor did sixty-three peaks in 1975, and later seventy-two peaks in 1986—that's fifty percent more climbing than the original Bob Graham Round.

Why did Joss Naylor start running fells in the first place?

He didn't start running as a sport—it came from necessity. As a fell shepherd in the Lake District, he needed to cover miles of steep terrain daily to manage sheep, and he just happened to be extraordinarily fast at it.

trail-running-and-fell-running

Joss Naylor: The Shepherd Who Ran Fells Because Farms Don't Pay Themselves

While Wainwright was drawing the routes, Naylor was running them—seventy-two peaks in under twenty-four hours, not for sponsorships or glory, but because he was a working shepherd who happened to be indestructibly fast. He still lives on the same Wasdale farm.

22 July 20267 min read